The ruthless truth of the numbers
Today is World Refugee Day. It is also the day of humanitarian posturing for political leaders, religious groups, international organizations and sundry philanthropists sending their customary “messages” of support and sympathy. The numbers, which we love so much when they’re conveying the truth most convenient to us, paint a picture of tragedy, and it is the kind of tragedy where there is no catharsis in the final scene. There is no deus ex machina to come and save the day, to settle the problems of men in a just fashion. And no human mechanism appears capable of reversing the course of history, and stopping wars – international and civil – the suppression of freedom with barbaric or more sophisticated methods, the monstrous rise of inequalities between countries and between the residents of the same country, the rapid expansion of poverty even in countries that appear ostensibly well-off, the climate and general environmental crisis.
This is not the stuff of some work of unfettered dystopian science-fiction, but the reality being experienced by billions of people around the world. According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of people forcibly displaced by “trauma, torment or threat of conflict, persecution, insecurity or human rights violations,” reached 103 million in the first half of 2022. Of those, 32.5 million were refugees. At the end of 2021, the number of forcibly displaced children came to 36.5 million. And with statistical precision: Throughout the first half of 2022, one in 77 people on this tiny planet of ours had to abandon hearth and home to survive and, where possible, to have a basic standard of living.
And here is another figure that pertains to our own “neighborhood”: From 2014 onward, some 27,000 people died crossing the Mediterranean, the deadliest migrant route. Of course those greedy bastards who run the human smuggling rackets are to blame; but they are not responsible for policies of “deterrence” or the sundry walls and fences. Nor can we blame them for countries that are torn apart in the name of democracy and humanitarianism, or bled dry of their natural resources (and even their archaeological treasures) by “civilized” investors. There’s an entirely different category of bastards responsible for those ills. And for them, the Mediterranean is the basin where they wash their hands of blame. And it’s no small bowl of water like Pontius Pilate had.
